


stealing drones for dummies

by helloshepard



Series: prowlcoswave [8]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Fix-It, Fluff, Hugs, Misunderstandings, Multi, Pre-Poly, Pre-Relationship, background plotting, half character study ALL introspection into a character's insecurities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22949047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloshepard/pseuds/helloshepard
Summary: Cosmos kinda sorta thinks Prowl and Soundwave are scheming. Problem is, Cosmos doesn't know what to do about it.
Relationships: Cosmos/Prowl/Soundwave
Series: prowlcoswave [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1633282
Comments: 10
Kudos: 87





	stealing drones for dummies

**Author's Note:**

> takes place a significant amount of time after 'redux' (think, ~~a year~~ couple decades or so). still pre-relationship, but not nearly as awkward/hostile as before.

Cosmos hadn’t survived the war by being unobservant.

Nor had he survived by being in space the entire time (as was a popular opinion, when mechs thought about him—which was rare. But still.)

Prowl had called him a fancy camera once, and as much as the joke (he thought it was a joke, anyway) irked him, he did have extensive optical modifications, allowing him to compare and contrast a thousand pictures in a microsecond.

And something had changed.

Sometime in the interim between his second visit to the station and today, Cosmos had gotten into the habit of automatically snapping pictures. By volume, they were mostly of Soundwave first thing in the morning, head tilted as he listened to whatever Cosmos—or anyone else—was saying. And pictures of Prowl first thing in the morning were starting to trickle in—when Cosmos finally realized he was taking them, he had wondered at the fact that the mech managed to look so attractive so early in the morning. And finally, there were the pictures of them together—not nearly as few as Cosmos had anticipated: he had expected to be the awkward intermediary between Soundwave and Prowl and Prowl and Soundwave, what with Prowl being Prowl and Soundwave being Soundwave.

He wasn’t sure what was more disconcerting: knowing that Prowl and Soundwave were getting along or knowing that they were getting along was making Cosmos very, very concerned.

Once he got over the fact that he had been unintentionally taking pictures, he began poring over them, examining the incremental changes of Soundwave completely oriented towards Prowl > Soundwave mostly oriented towards Prowl > Soundwave oriented vaguely in Prowl’s direction

Prowl was somewhere in the middle—not as casual in Soundwave’s presence as Soundwave was in his, but he was far, far more relaxed than Cosmos had anticipated.

And that scared him.

It should have made him happy. Two of the very, very limited number of people in the galaxy who paid him any attention seemed to be really, genuinely getting along.

It didn’t scare him because he wasn’t included in this new, weird closeness. Soundwave and Prowl had more in common than Cosmos did with both of them combined. It startled him, but ultimately, Cosmos supposed he wasn’t surprised. They were both outliers, both stupidly, brilliantly smart.

And they both had the potential to be really, really dangerous.

And that, Cosmos decided, was what scared him. If Soundwave and Prowl had decided to throw caution and morality into the wind and do…something—that scared him. Cosmos wasn’t sure what they would do, but he suspected two mechs of their intellect could do essentially whatever they liked if they put their minds together. Instigate a new war? Start hunting down Earth poachers? Plot to destroy the Black Box Consortia?

Whatever it was, they could (and would) do it.

And Cosmos didn’t know if he could stop them.

He had been internally debating how to bring it up for days. It was entirely possible that this was totally innocent, that it was just the natural consequence of an Autobot and a Deception coexisting on a relatively boring commune for a few decades. Grudges could only fuel a mech for so long, Cosmos supposed, and he knew from experience that boredom was excellent at diffusing anger.

Or maybe it was because they were bored, so they had begun to…plot.

He could, Cosmos supposed just yesterday, just ask them.

He decided to ask Soundwave, if only because he was half afraid that if this really was just an innocent side effect of boredom and being smart, Prowl might lapse back into paranoid, loyal, Autobot mode. Soundwave probably wouldn’t take offense to the insinuation that he was getting friendly with a former enemy combatant. He had been the one to invite Cosmos over to the station in the first place.

The walk to Soundwave’s office seemed longer than normal—Cosmos had checked earlier to ensure Prowl wasn’t there—the other Autobot was talking with Makeshift, and would be for a while—possibly because Cosmos had spent the entire walk mentally rehearsing what he wanted to say. He had it more or less down by the time he had approached the office, Cosmos thought. Not antagonistic, but definitely firm.

When the door slid open and Soundwave greeted him with an open, friendly posture, and a warm, “Hello Cosmos”, what came out was:

“WhatareyouandProwlupto?”

Soundwave paused, and for a moment, Cosmos was very, very glad he was wearing a battle mask.

“Sorry,” Cosmos said. “I’ll, uh, start again. Um. You and Prowl.”

“Yes?” Soundwave inclined his head to an open chair.

Cosmos sat.

“You two seem to be getting along,” Cosmos said. “How’s that going?”

“Well.” Soundwave shifted in his seat—he wasn’t uncomfortable, Cosmos could tell, but he was getting there. “Prowl is a valuable asset to the station.”

“Uh-huh.” Cosmos tapped his fingers against his knees. “You’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

“Tell you what?”

“Primus, you can read my mind, Soundwave,” Cosmos said. “You know what I mean. I think.”

Soundwave nodded, and Cosmos immediately felt bad. He knew that Soundwave struggled to keep his abilities in check—Cosmos had felt the impact of an unexpected emotional surge firsthand—but Soundwave was usually far less evasive when they spoke.

“I was genuine when I said that I intended to divert from Megatron’s path,” Soundwave said. “And Prowl has been invaluable in ensuring I do not fall back on familiarity.”

When Cosmos didn’t answer, Soundwave spoke again. Another red flag—Soundwave was more comfortable with awkward silence than Cosmos could ever hope to be.

“Cosmos. You may not believe it, but you are valued here,” Soundwave said. “And we will ensure you know it.”

“I’m not sure if you intended that to sound foreboding?”

“I did not.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Cosmos was fighting back a smile.

“Thanks, Soundwave,” Cosmos said. “Just, please, don’t do anything illegal on my behalf.”

“How illegal?”

Cosmos narrowed his optics. Soundwave’s face was impassive as ever. He stood to go—his shift started in a few minutes, and even though he was technically his own boss, it wouldn’t look too good if he was late to a shift he had scheduled for himself.

“See you later.”

“Likewise, little Autobot.”

* * *

The new closeness had gone on for so long it stopped feeling new, and had settled into a routine sameness, noticeable only on the occasions Cosmos offhandedly mentioned the Autobots stationed on Earth and Prowl and Soundwave exchanged a look. But it happened rarely enough that it barely warranted a second thought—mostly, Cosmos realized with some relief, they seemed to talk about work, or their weird religious debates where neither actually believed in the divinity of the Primes but would argue about it nonetheless, or on a rare occasion, swap stories about being second lieutenant.

Cosmos had nearly forgotten about the whole, awkward incident with Soundwave—at least, until Prowl sent him a comm right as his shift was ending, asking him to meet in Soundwave’s office. That was weird—usually, he and Prowl met up for drinks at the park, and Soundwave would join them if he had the time. But Soundwave was supposed to be in a meeting-slash-argument with the Council of Worlds till well after the work cycle was complete, so…

The door slid open, and something barreled into Cosmos. Warning signals flashed across his HUD as Cosmos was knocked to the ground—he had very nearly pulled out his rifle, a multitude of epithets directed at Soundwave and Prowl on the tip of his tongue, when his optics refocused, and—

“D.0.C?”

The drone beeped and bumped its display panel against Cosmos’s head. Cosmos staggered to his feet, and

D.0.C. trilled happily as Cosmos gave the drone a quick once-over. Save for the scuffs of blue and black paint, the drone appeared fully intact and functional. D.0.C. followed Cosmos back into Soundwave’s office, where he was met with two expectant, smug, stares.

“You didn’t.” Cosmos managed. “H-how?”

“Arcee owed me a favor,” Prowl said. “And Soundwave had taken a sample of your stealthpaint when you were laid up in the medbay last year.

“You went—” D.0.C. butted insistently against Cosmos’s leg, until Cosmos gave in and patted its display paneling. “You two stole my stealthpaint and snuck onboard the Ark, all just to get D.0.C.?”

“It was not that easy,” Soundwave said. “Your friend required an extensive explanation in order to persuade it to come with us.”

Cosmos looked at the paint transfers on D.0.C., then at the streaks of dirty white plastering Prowl and Soundwave’s frames.

“I can imagine,” Cosmos said dryly. D.0.C. beeped happily.

“It was illegal,” Soundwave said. “But acceptable?”

“I—yeah. Yeah, it’s acceptable—illegal, but acceptable.” Cosmos coughed. “I’m gonna hug both of you now, okay?”

Soundwave and Prowl exchanged a look.

“Yes.”

“Sure.”

For perhaps the first time since he had undergone the frame reformat, Cosmos was glad he was significantly larger than most mechs. It was a simple matter to pull Soundwave into an embrace with one arm, and then Prowl with the other. Though Cosmos had been half expecting it, he still stiffened in surprise when their arms came up to rest on his waist.

“You guys are the best,” Cosmos said. “I mean it.”

“We know,” Prowl said.

He didn’t look down, but Cosmos was certain Prowl’s smile matched his own.

“Shut up.”

**Author's Note:**

> h ey...come talk about prowlcoswave with me [on tumblr if you'd like](http://soundwavereporting.tumblr.com/)


End file.
